We all know the importance of a great
professional fit for our physician candidates.
These candidates need to know that the core
job functions within their department. Our
clinics and hospitals provide a great practice
environment for incoming physicians. But what
about life outside of work? We have materially
improved our recruitment efforts by doing our
best to answer that lifestyle/community question
through outstanding community tours.

Our experience shows that the most important
component in an outstanding community tour
is making people feel at home. At Marshfield
Clinic, we deliver this feeling by the age-old
concept of hospitality. We don’t see this concept
as the modern version of a false smile and a warm
cookie when you check into a hotel. Rather, we
believe it to be the ancient and fundamental
practice of taking responsibility for the wellbeing
of our guests and making them feel wholly
comfortable.

We believe that many different people could
provide honest, robust, and positive information
about the communities in which our physicians
practice, as well as the high level of hospitality
described above. As you are aware, in-house
physician recruitment professionals wear many
different hats, and may already be stretched to
the limit. It is wonderful to have physicians at
our institutions provide tours and hospitality,
but that seems to be a rarity. What works for us
is a strong relationship between a great physician
recruitment department and an outstanding real
estate broker.

Real estate brokers can be a great resource
because first, they generally have intimate
knowledge of the community. Secondly, brokers
are usually very positive. Last but not least,
brokers often have the time to provide a good
service; and can provide the services at no cost to
the clinic or hospital. Nonetheless, we believe it
takes a very particular kind of broker to do this
work well.

What brokers should you avoid? The kind of
brokers that do not work well for making people
feel at home are those who are solely focused
on the big sale and on the housing market. At
the time of the first interview, most physician
candidates do not even know if the position
is a good fit, so why show them million dollar
homes? What is more, many of our physician
candidates are just coming out of residency or
fellowship, and may want to rent. It may seem
paradoxical, but the real estate professionals to
avoid are those who are fixated on selling homes.
The focus should be on selling the community
and the health care organization- not houses.

Your goal should be to work with someone
who is polished, cultured and committed to
hospitality.

We that feel our improved results have come
from asking what a candidate and his/ her family
wants, and really listening to the answer. Coupled
with that, is our fundamental emphasis on
making people feel at home. Our communities
are small, rural places. Though we may lack
certain urban amenities, we are always happy
to point out that there is much more to our
communities than meets the eye. Since we have
small populations and are far from urban centers,
we have all the more reason to show our polish
and cultural currency. Physician candidates
come from all over the world, and have many
different backgrounds; therefore, it is critical
that your broker find something from a lifestyle
and community perspective that candidates can
connect with.

As an example, physician candidates, by
definition, must have an English language
proficiency, even if their family members do not.
As such, one of our brokers speaks Spanish well
and the wife of another speaks fluent Mandarin.
We also have access to speakers of Arabic, Polish,
Farsi and other foreign languages. It is incredible
how much more positive a community looks
when a spouse, for example, realizes that he has
someone with whom he can communicate when
the big move happens.

There was one instance when one of our
candidates had trouble finding restaurant food on
a Sunday that met his family’s dietary needs. That
evening, our broker cooked a Halal meal for the
candidate and his family. Now, we are working
on bringing Halal meat to Marshfield. Meeting
dietary requirements is elemental to any concept
of hospitality, and makes our small communities
all the more attractive for physicians and their
families.

The teenage daughter of one of our cardiovascular
surgical candidates was having a very hard time
imagining herself moving from an area with
lots of urban amenities to the middle of central
Wisconsin. After some probing, we learned that
she had a profound love of animals, especially
horses. That community tour consisted of our
brokers spending three hours introducing the
family to local cats, dogs, peacocks, goats, llamas
and horses. The focus was much less about the
community, and much more about addressing
the love of animals the teenager had. This may
sound overly saccharine, but it gave the surgeon
and his physician wife an outstanding perception
of our community and our clinic. What is more, a
young woman who had once been deeply unhappy
turned into a Marshfield Clinic promoter!

One of our proudest successes has been recruiting
an outstanding hematology-oncology candidate
who moved his mother, father and aunt from
war-torn Syria. We made sure he and his family
had a home-cooked Syrian meal, complete with
freshly-baked pita, labneh, fattoush, tabouli and
homemade baklava.

To us, there is no greater honor than making
people feel at home in our community. Making
sure a candidate knows that she will have
resources, warmth, connection and friendship, if
she chooses to accept our position, makes all the
difference.